POLICE have narrowed their search for missing Mandeville couple, Richard and Julia Lyn, to a dump in Martin’s Hill, Manchester.

“We are looking for two barrels which may contain the bodies. It may take days for us to finish searching the area,” head of the Major Investigation Task (MIT) Force, Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green told the Observer yesterday.

The police have, in the interim, recovered a second motor vehicle belonging to the Lyns. The vehicle, a Toyota Corolla, was found covered with bushes along a section of Spur Tree Hill in Manchester.

On Wednesday, police detained a tractor driver but he was released after no charges could be levelled against him.

Police have, however, charged Lennox Swaby, 25 and his mother June White, 50 with illegal possession of ammunition after several bullets were allegedly found last week inside a house they occupied.

Swaby was out on bail after being charged for the 2004 murder of a 14-year-old girl whose body was found in a water tank in the parish.

A number of household appliances and furniture taken from the home occupied by Swaby and Hinds were recovered at the premises, while other items were recovered in other sections of the parish.

The Lyns’ Toyota Rav 4 was also recovered by the police in Mandeville last weekend.

The Lyns have been missing for 11 days. Police from the MIT and the Caribbean Search Centre have been searching for the couple in two red mud lakes and other sections of Manchester since earlier this week.

Two other men are also in custody in connection with the abduction of the elderly couple and the robbery of their home.

“There is a total of five persons in custody of whom two are primarily, we believe, responsible for the initial abduction of the Lyns and the other three for interviews around property which we have recovered at their addresses,” Green told the Observer.

Green also said that dogs were used in yesterday’s search of the dump. “We were very fortunate to find an individual willing to lend us some dogs which we hope would be able to help detect any human remains and we brought them here,” he said. “As a result of the activities we have done today, we are concentrating on a specific area within the dump and we hope to continue that tomorrow with the mechanical equipment to finish the search.”

Despite the use of the dogs, Green expressed hope that the Lyns would be found alive.

“The piece of information we are working on here is that these barrels are relevant to our investigation, but we are always hopeful until we find Mr & Mrs Lyn that they will be found safe and alive,” said Green. “We have nothing definitive at this stage that they have been killed.”

A relative of the Lyns, who did not wish to be identified, was visibly shaken by their disappearance when the Observer visited Mandeville earlier this week. She appeared resigned that her relatives had been murdered.

“We just want some sort of closure. If we find whatever is left of them, then we could at least give them a proper funeral,” she said.

A friend of the Lyns questioned whether a prison term would be just punishment for the people responsible for the robbery, abduction and possible murder of the couple.

“When a 20-year-old man gets sent to prison for this crime he might serve 15 years and then be eligible for parole,” said the friend. “He is going to come out at 37, even more hardened than when he went in.”

Since a reward of $1 million has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible for the abduction of the Lyns, the police said they have received a number of tips but so far none have yielded success.

– walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com